BOSTON—When Rep. Jim Arciero was elected in November, his morning routine hardly changed. He had a new parking space, but his route to work could remain the same.

Prior to his election, the Westford Democrat worked in the Statehouse for 10 years: first as a legislative aide to former Rep. Geoff Hall, the man he has replaced, and then as legislative director for Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, the Senate Ways and Means chair.

Arciero’s path is not uncommon. Nearly 20 percent, or 39 of the 200 Massachusetts legislators, served as staffers in the Statehouse before getting elected and requiring a staff of their own. And many say they’re better lawmakers because of it.

“You learn the politics of the building—the formal rules, the informal rules—you learn your word is your bond,” said Rep. Colleen Garry, D-Dracut, who served former Rep. John F. Cox for eight years. “It’s like being a ‘Rep-in-training.’”

A survey of the building suggests the training helps in an ascent to the top. Prominent lawmakers headline the list of former aides, including House Minority Leader Bradley Jones, R-North Reading, Senate Transportation Chair Steve Baddour, D-Methuen, and former House Majority Leader John Rogers, D-Norwood, who was twice in the running to become House speaker.

“You get a first-hand understanding of how the process works,” said Baddour, an aide under former Sen. James Jajuga in the early 1990s. “The first time anyone walks into the House or Senate chambers, it’s overwhelming; but having served in the building, I wasn’t intimidated or concerned.”

But there are those who disapprove. Paul Avella, a former Air Force colonel who opposed Arciero for the 2nd Middlesex District, called the succession “incestuous.”

“It breeds majority parties,” he said. “You don’t get any outside perspectives. And the fewer viewpoints you receive in an argument, the more sure you are of your position.”

James M. Glaser, a political science professor at Tufts University, agrees. “You wouldn’t want everybody to come up that way,” he said. “It’s important to have lots of different viewpoints, backgrounds and experiences coming into the Statehouse and into any legislature.”

During the campaign, Avella pitted his experience in Korea and Iraq against Arciero’s in the Statehouse.

“His only experience is Beacon Hill,” he said. “He’s been a whole 25 miles from his house and he’s your representative?”

But Rachael Cobb, an assistant professor of government at Suffolk University, said legislating is the only profession where experience is discounted. “It’s odd,” she said. “I don’t view experience as a bad thing… It’s good to have people who are well-trained in positions of power.”
 
Arciero embraced his history, campaigning on his capability to “hit the ground running”—a phrase repeated by nearly every former aide.

But whether running or starting from a stop, the road is long and winding, according to Glaser.

“Given how varied the issues are and how complex government is, I think anyone’s going to have some learning curve they’re going to have to master whether they’ve been there as an aide or not,” he said.

Reps-in-training

It’s not surprising many of the aides shuffling through the halls of the Statehouse look young. For a fresh-from-college graduate, a legislative staff position may be the perfect foothold for the climb to elected office.

Sen. Baddour said he secured a position at the Statehouse before receiving his diploma.

While leading a 1991 student protest on Beacon Hill over cuts to higher education, Baddour met future-boss Jajuga. The two spoke briefly and Baddour submitted his resume. Soon enough, he had a job.

“I graduated on June 2 and started working at the Statehouse on June 3,” he said.

Arciero also made his way to the Statehouse shortly after graduating. Former Rep. Geoff Hall said he met Arciero through the Westford Academy Alumni Association the summer after Arciero’s college graduation.

“He was an ambitious young man—someone with some drive—so we hired him,” Hall said. “And the rest is history.”

Arciero began as a researcher for Hall’s work as the Committee of State Administration chair. A few months later, he was dealing directly with constituents—a service the majority of former aides said they specialized in.

After nearly four years, Arciero got his master’s in public administration and moved to the treasurer’s office to analyze the state’s fiscal management. But while away from the Statehouse, Arciero didn’t lose sight of his ultimate goal.

“In the back of my mind I always wanted to serve,” he said.

In 2003, the door to politics swung back open for Arciero when Sen. Panagiotakos, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, tapped Arciero as his new legislative director.

“The stakes were a lot higher,” Arciero said. “It was a bigger job and a bigger role.”

Under Panagiotakos, Arciero said he helped balance the state’s $28 billon budget.

Arciero said he held the post for five years, until his former boss, Rep. Hall, told him he was retiring.

“If the seat was open I always intended to throw my hat in the ring,” Arciero said.

Less than a year later, he was sworn into the seat he once served as a 22-year-old aide.

But not every former staffer had such clear-cut ambitions.

Rosemary Sandlin, D-Agawam, coached former Sen. Linda J. Melconian from the sidelines for “22 glorious years,” before ever considering becoming a player herself.

In 1982, Sandlin began on the campaign for the largely unknown Melconian. In 2000, she became chief of staff for the then-Senate Majority Leader Melconian. In 2003, the two left the Statehouse together as Melconian retired and Sandlin took a job in the state licensing department.

“Linda was a great legislator—a great teacher,” Sandlin said. Melconian herself began as an administrative assistant to former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill.

But Sandlin soon realized she missed Beacon Hill.

“It was too calm for me,” she said of her licensing job. “If you really do enjoy public policy and you can’t influence it—that’s a problem.”

Retreading her boss’ trail, Sandlin made the jump from aide to legislator three years after her Statehouse departure, defeating four men for the House seat in 2006.

An Aided Past

The Statehouse history of current lawmakers begins around 1970, before most legislators had official aides. A young political activist named Byron Rushing set up a “liaison office” for the then-three black representatives. Rushing, who went on to represent the Roxbury section of Boston since 1982, said they required the office’s aide services because they had become the first point of contact for every black in Massachusetts.

Three years later, Rep. Brian Wallace, D-Boston, entered the Statehouse as an aide to then-Rep. Ray Flynn.

But both men said their previous experience on Beacon Hill was irrelevant to their election. Rushing didn’t run for office until 13 years later; Wallace, 26 years.

Rushing argues experience provides no advantage anyway. “If (legislators) were getting hired, maybe,” he said. “But I don’t think aides have an upper hand in running for office.”

But Rushing and Wallace’s 30-year pasts are relatively recent in the historic trend of aides-turned-lawmakers.

The tendency dates back to the dawn of our government: Alexander Hamilton served as Gen. George Washington’s chief aide during the Revolution.

“Everyone that Washington appointed (in his first presidency) had administrative experience from the military,” said American Historian Willard Sterne Randall, a Founding Fathers expert. “But they weren’t just field commanders: they had to know about legislation; they had to know about the individual states.”

Nor does the movement seem to have an end in sight.

Aaron Michelwitz, a top aide for Sal DiMasi, is running for the former speaker’s seat.

And in his campaign, he echoes his lineage: “I think there are a lot of aspects of being an aide that you can learn from to be a better legislator.”

Jack Nicas is a correspondent for the Lowell Sun, Berkshire Eagle, and Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise through the Boston University Statehouse program.